The Erie Canal changed all our lives for the better. It was started in 1817 and was finished and opened eight years later in 1825. The official date construction for the Erie Canal was approved by the New York State Legislature was on April 15th, 1817. The Erie Canal is 363 miles long and was solely built by man and horse power. The Erie canal affected the United States in many ways, a few of them are, that by using the Erie Canal travel time and dangers went down, New York grew drastically and many social changes came about. Traveling on the Erie Canal was much safer than before because there is safety in numbers and while traveling on the Erie Canal there was always someone near. Like all things
there was one danger that was most commonly know which was the low bridges. If you didn’t duck down at a low bridge you could potentially have your head smashed by the low bridge. Although this was the greatest danger it didn’t happen very often. Travel time also went down on the Erie Canal because you traveled straight through to your destination and you didn’t have to stop very often. The Erie Canal also caused New York to grow. It drew many people near to it because of trade and transportation. Travel became easier which brought more trade to the United States. Businesses and companies grew a lot near the Erie Canal and New York grew as a whole. Over time New York became the financial capital of the world. Most people lived around the Erie Canal in 1860 according to (chart 5). Many social changes came about around the time the Erie Canal was built. Lots of new religions sprung up around the Canal. Within these religions the people decide that they wanted complete equality, yet they were still struggling with the concept of freeing slaves.
Women wanted equality too, but they were scared to ask for too much (play read in class). Women wanted the right to vote but didn’t want to ask, what Sojourner truth said was, why are we asking instead of doing which is what they eventually did. these are some of the ways the Erie Canal changed the United states. By cutting down on travel time which increased trade, New York becoming the financial capital of the world and the movements of equality growing. The Erie Canal is and was important for all our lives.